The CDC Wants Women to Stop Drinking If They’re Not on Birth Control!

Here’s some news which could make you think twice about your next happy hour or glass of wine. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report saying sexually active women between the ages of 15 and 44-years-old should stop drinking unless they’re on birth control.

CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat, M.D., said in a statement, “Alcohol can permanently harm a developing baby before a woman knows she is pregnant. About half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, and even if planned, most women won’t know they are pregnant for the first month or so, when they might still be drinking. The risk is real. Why take the chance?”

The CDC wants to decrease the cases of fetal alcohol syndrome, which is estimated to affect as many as 2 to 5 per 100 school children in the U.S. as well as some Western European countries. Data from 2011 to 2013 was analyzed and it was found 3.3 million women who drink, are sexually active and not using birth control, were “at risk of exposing their developing baby to alcohol if they were to become pregnant.”

Previous studies have shown a drink on a rare occasion during pregnancy isn’t harmful, but the CDC report says, “There is no known safe amount of alcohol — even beer or wine — that is safe for a woman to drink at any stage of pregnancy.”

The report continues with listing the effects fetal alcohol syndrome can cause such as long-term physical, behavioral and intellectual disabilities throughout a child’s life.

As with most new health reports, women will probably just roll their eyes and continue drinking. But the CDC hopes it’s not the case.

“Hopefully, this is the sort of report that will make people stop and think,” said Wanda Filer, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, to USA Today.